Some of you may have heard about the group Femen, that consists of young women who stage demonstrations while going topless with messages painted on their bodies and doing other things aimed at drawing a lot of media attention for the causes they support. They have announced that they are bringing their campaign to the US by setting up an office here to train and coordinate activities. [Warning: Link has a photo of a topless Femen member.]
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There has been a spate of news reports of aggrieved plutocrats grumbling about how mean people are to them these days, and how nobody seems to appreciate the fact that they worked hard for their money unlike the rest of us moochers and looters and that they are so exceptionally gifted that they deserve even more. While much scorn has been directed at those who have said these things publicly, what they say among themselves privately is even worse.
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The winter Olympics in Sochi have ended and, as far as I can tell, went off pretty smoothly. All the dark predictions of a fiasco or even terrorist attacks that the US media endlessly speculated about before the games did not occur.
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As a result of cases in other states in which photographers and florists and bakers were sued for declining to provide their services at the weddings of same-sex couples, the thoughtful legislators of Arizona decided that they needed to protect their own citizens who dislike gays from similar lawsuits and both the state house and senate passed laws that said that any business could deny service to anyone, not just gay people, for religious reasons if those beliefs are held ‘sincerely’. The bill is now awaiting the signature of Arizona governor Jan Brewer. If she does not veto it by Friday, it becomes law.
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Former longtime Republican congressional staffer Mike Lofgren says in a long essay what many of us have been saying all along, that despite all the posturing about divided government and gridlock and nothing getting done, in reality there is an underlying, unspoken, smoothly operating consensus on some things that result in certain policies that benefit a select few, the oligarchy, getting implemented with little or no discussion. He gives the group behind it a name and calls them the ‘Deep State’.
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Stephen M. Walt gives 10 tried and true ways to defend yourself, your boss, or your country when caught doing something bad. Close political observers will find the list drearily familiar because they can be heard at any press conference or interview where a policymaker is asked awkward questions following exposure of their actions.
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It is not uncommon for political neophytes who once raged against the system to, once they get into office, temper their rhetoric in order to get things done, since governance usually requires compromise and not alienating those one needs to work with. But what begins as a tactical maneuver to get others to go along with your plans can often end up with you going along with their plans and eventually changing your own views to theirs. This process is what George Orwell satirized in his Animal Farm where the pigs who overthrew the human farmers on the slogan of “Four legs good, two legs bad” and took charge of running the farm eventually became indistinguishable in attitude, actions, and even appearance from the humans they once despised.
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